Day 3

I have had a contract for more than a year now to revise a book that was published in 2001, CHILDREN AND LIBRARIES. I've thought about it a lot and fretted even more, but until July 1 not one word existed in the new manuscript. I have now started writing in earnest. This blog will be the place where I write and fret and think about the process.

I started with the easiest chapter, the historical overview of library service to children. This is the only chapter that I can just revise; all of the others will be brand new, written from scratch. I've had to retype the whole thing -- what on earth did I do with the original Word file? But this has been good because it combines a kind of mechanical process with reflection. I've been revising as I go along, mostly adding new information.

I'm almost at a decision point. In the earlier edition, the second chapter was a kind of assessment of the current status of library service to children. I am considering now whether to fold some of that information ino the historical overview as something like the "recent past." We'll see how that goes.

Reflections: 1. As painful as it is to get started on a big writing project (or even a little one), it is not as painful as fretting about NOT writing. 2. I don't know what I know until I've written it down.